Everything is Always Art

It’s the ArtHouse 43 GIFT BASKET GIVEAWAY! In celebration of our new podcast Art City Now, we have 3 fantastic baskets to giveaway and all you have to do to enter is:

1) Share the podcast, pick an episode, if you’d like (www.arthouse43.com/artcitynow) and tag us @ArtHouse43. Tagging us allows us to see who shared it! 2) OR you can write a review of the Art City Now podcast on iTunes!

Do either of those and we will put your name in the bowl and we will draw the 3 winners on Sunday, December 23 at 3pm! Each basket has wine, beer, chocolate, snacks and a classic DVD!

We can’t ship anything, so plz be accessible to southern Michigan! Thanks!

Today on this #GivingTuesday, which was created by 92nd Street Y & the United Nations Foundation in 2012 as a response to commercialization & consumerism during the Holidays, we ask, friends, that you donate to our cause of connecting communities with the arts! ArtHouse 43 is an arts organization founded by Troy Ramos and is based in Detroit. We consistently creates arts projects through art shows, funding art projects and creating podcasts which focus on artists in the community.

We need your support to help carry on doing these projects so that we can make our contribution towards having a stronger artistic culture. We ask that you visit our site and have a look at all our successful projects over the last 3 years. And then we ask you to click on “Support”, and then to join us in supporting a good cause by donating any amount that you can. Every donation will have an impact!

If we want to have a stronger artistic culture, want to see artists make a living, then we have to support them financially, as well. Thank you for your support, dear friends, it means everything!

What a great summer and fall! Mama mia! Many of you may remember that I was selected by ArtPrize for their Pitch Night Detroit Award back in May, which meant they awarded me $5,000 to create a new sound and light installation that was featured at ArtPrize 10 in Grand Rapids. It went smashingly great! Thousands of visitors came to see my work, I was on the ArtPrize public vote leaderboard for most votes during the entire festival and the reviews and feedback were fantastic!

Thank you to everyone who supported me and came out, to ArtPrize and to my friends and family for their continued support!

This video is a three minute synopsis of what it was like to walk around the space and you get to hear some of the sounds, as well. This work, the lights, sounds, everything, was created specifically for the space and was designed to be a reflective space for visitors to experience themselves, or whatever they wish.

This work will be hosted again at another venue in the near future. But until then, please enjoy this video!

Brand New Podcast: Art City Now5 Episode Series on Battle Creek, MIHosted by Troy RamosProduced by ArtHouse 43, LLC/ www.ArtHouse43.comAvailable on iTunes, All Major Platforms and at www.ArtHouse43.com/ArtCityNow

"Art City Now" Podcast Released November 13, 2018!

Project Description:

Art City Now is an audio podcast hosted by Troy Ramos and created by ArtHouse 43 highlighting diverse artistic initiatives in different cities. Each new city covered is considered a ‘series’. Art City Now: Battle Creek is a 5-episode series devoted to the exploration of the arts scene in Battle Creek. Each 25-30 minute episode will feature at least one artist or artistic voice for a discussion on how they approach their craft and how their work interacts with the Battle Creek arts communities.

Goals and Achievement:

ArtHouse 43 is an arts and culture organization dedicated to connectingcommunities with their local arts scene. Since being founded by TroyRamos in 2015, they have hosted and organized many successful artshows in multiple cities, received multiple grants for a variety of projects,connected artists using multiple platforms and continue to create podcasts,including ArtHouse Radio, Troy Meets World and, now, Art City Now.“As with every project we do, our goal is always to contribute towardsbuilding a stronger artistic culture in our communities, and to do it in aninclusive manner that creates diversity, a sense of community and supportsart projects that expand the possibilities,” says host Troy Ramos. “And Art City Now is a perfect example of our ability to create platforms for discussions on the arts, community and the universe.”

Through Art City Now, they want to provide a platform for unifying a sense of connection in the arts communities and beyond. Through these documentary-styled podcast episodes, which focus on both historical and contemporary aspects of the arts world within Battle Creek, they believe they can contribute to an even more vibrant community. The conversations, information about spaces and artists in the community and the ability for anybody to access these episodes online for free will help the artists and supporting arts organizations in Battle Creek to establish a unique connection with each other.

Artist Support and Diverse Lineup:

Art City Now will become a platform that not only provides communication and important dialogue between these artists and their community, but will hopefully lead towards building a stronger network of artists and arts organization in the area. Since this podcast is set up to cover the arts scene in many different cities, every city covered would forever have the potential to be exposed to a massive listenership from other local arts communities covered by the show, the larger arts world and people simply interested to know more about the art scene in a particular city. “This could be a massive continued and indefinite support structure for everyone involved”, Ramos says.

They also plan to use this network to highlight creative work of a artists from all communities. They are very aware of the depth of the arts scene in the many different communities in Battle Creek. "What a person sees from one perspective in a community is also a part of a larger collective of arts activities. We strongly believe it’s in the best interest of Art City Now and for the Battle Creek community to explore as many different facets of this interesting and diverse cultural arts scene as possible”, adds Ramos. They also want to address some concerns regarding art and its connection to underserved communities through discussion and exploration, and integrating those thoughts into this Battle Creek series.

“Sound Space turned out great and I’m so lucky to have had this experience. So many people who walked out of the exhibit said some of the kindest and most inspiring things anybody has ever said to me. I was already motivated to create works that connect me to people, connects people to whatever they want and to provide a platform for reflection. But now I’m even more motivated after this experience. I feel like I can accomplish anything!,” said artist Troy Ramos.

Thank you to everyone who supported Troy and came out, thanks to ArtPrize and to friends and family for their continued support!

This work, the lights, sounds, everything, were created specifically for the space and were designed to be a reflective space for visitors to experience themselves, or whatever they wish. Sound Space will be hosted again at another venue in the near future.

“As it is, we are merely bolting our lives—gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in—because awareness of our own existence is so superficial and so narrow that nothing seems to us more boring than simple being. If I ask you what you did, saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted yesterday, I’m likely to get nothing more than the thin, sketchy outline of the few things that you noticed, and of those only what you thought worth remembering. But suppose you could answer, “It would take me forever to tell you, and I am much too interested in what’s happening now.” -Alan Watts

In order to be strongly interested in what’s happening now, we need, in some way, to connect with the openness of finding meaningful experiences. Often we go into artistic spaces to look for the specific works…the painting, the video installation, the sculpture, and so on. As significant as the actual works are, I think there is something at least equally meaningful beyond that idea, which is: the experience of having an interaction with art. Sound Space is about creating experiences which encourage reflection and pause, and asks the visitor to interact with the artwork for a longer period of time- not for the benefit of the work, rather for the potential benefit of the observer. This work is about what the experience does to you, the effect your experience has on the work, others around you, and the space you’re in. This work encourages art as being connected with human experience.

Sound Space is a sound and light installation. The space is the visual aspect, curated to set the stage for what observers hear and experience. I’m interested in creating a platform in which these human experiences can happen. Sound Space would invite connections between the visitor and the work, opening up the possibility for anything to occur to them or happen during their visit. Sound Space is a platform for observers to experience themselves.

The Work

The setting is designed to encourage the visitor to stay and listen to the work for as long as they wish. The sound work for Sound Space was created specially for this ArtPrize 10 project. The work was composed after the venue and space were determined so that the spirit of the venue and space were in my thoughts as I created this sound work.

We have ended the ArtHouse Hallway Gallery in Midtown Detroit, but only after a great success! Many thanks to all the artists and people who sent in works to the gallery for us to hang up! The gallery ran from June 2017 until June 2018. Below is the social media post we first did on the gallery:

“After moving into an apt in midtown Detroit, I quickly felt that the hallway outside my apt door needed a little bit of love, so I created the #ArtHouseHallwayGallery for anyone in the building to see! Send me a photo of your work, of anything you love or anything else, & I'll put them into the rotation for this ongoing show! Ppl are looking at them & are interested! So far it's been a rotation of all kinds of different, interesting works.

Send me something, here or DM, w/your name & title, if any. I'll print them off & put them up. You can also support the gallery, if you'd like, too, by going to www.arthouse43.com/support. Let’s create a moment together through this gallery! It'll be like your little art show in Detroit!! Don’t wait, send me things!”

He did it! Last night artist Troy Ramos took home the Pitch Night Detroit Award after successfully convincing a panel of wonderful art experts that the sound and light installation Sound Space needed to be brought into existence. The event took place in Hamtramck (like a Detroit neighborhood but it’s its own city) at Bank Suey and was put on by ArtPrize of Grand Rapids. The winner, c’est Troy!, got $5,000 and a high profile venue spot at this year’s ArtPrize 10.

The other 4 finalists were great and it was an honor to listen to all their wonderful pitches! We look forward to hopefully seeing their work at ArtPrize in September!

If you’re unfamiliar, ArtPrize is, we believe, the biggest arts competition in the world. Certainly at the top, if not the biggest. Every year about 1500 artists set up works at venues throughout downtown Grand Rapids and compete for the top spots. There are category prizes, and two big top prizes: $200K for most public votes and $200K for juried award winner. Wowser!

The winning work, called Sound Space, is going to be a sound and light installation that will provide visitors with a platform for reflection and pause. Ramos wants it to be a space where people can physically go inside this artwork and have their own experience. It’s very important that people have their own experience.

Troy looks forward to putting this together and seeing how people react to it. Thanks to everyone who came out to the event! We had such a great time and got to meet so many great people. And we really look forward to working with everyone at ArtPrize. It’s gonna be fantastic!

ArtHouse 43 presents Phasing Moments, an art show created by Troy Ramos and Chris Ramos! This show features artworks using three mediums: video, sound and paintings. These works were created using the naturalism approach (a term coined by Troy Ramos), which is a momentary-form where works are created in as short amount of time as possible, so as to capture the state of mind at a particular point in time and space. There are 9 total works: three paintings, three videos and three sound works.

These works also have an interesting collaborative, twist, however. The art works were created in the spirit of the works created before them. Using video, sound and painting, the artists took an idea, started with one medium and then passed this idea back and forth, using the previous works as a starting point to create a new work. This process was then repeated every time, with each work of art being connected to all of the previous works in some way.

“Everything in this world emanates from something that already exists. Art is no different.”, says Troy Ramos. “We simply wanted to create a collection of artworks that were more strongly connected to each other, rather than with some outside force.”

Each stage of this metamorphosis produced an artwork formed by both the medium and its place in the process itself. The results of this process are what make up the art works in Phasing Moments. It is simply an art show that focuses on both process and the transformation of ideas which were passed through different phases, the result of each phase producing its own unique result and compiling an interesting collection of works overall.

“The process we developed to exchange one idea to the next was very interesting, and the resulting artwork leaves traces of what it was like to be inside the mind of the artists at each of the nine phases.” says Chris Ramos. "I think people will find the show captivating in that sense, and we are excited to see their reactions.”

This show is made possible through a generous grant by The Battle Creek Community Foundation. This project is also sponsored by the Art Center of Battle Creek and Battle Creatures, LLC.

Twelve Stars ia available on Bandcamp, with digital downloads available AND a limited edition of CDs, with each CD sent out being 'unique'! Give it a listen and support an artist! Troy Ramos need you, friends! Check the work out: www.troyramos.bandcamp.com!

The following articles was written by the artist, Troy Ramos:

“These twelve piano works were created in the same moment in time. They are all part of one idea. Multiple melodic lines drift calmly around each other throughout the entire album. All of these sounds were pulled from somewhere in the cosmos and simply organized by one person. In other words, this work is a cosmotic sound sculpture.

I hope you enjoy my sonic sculptures.” - Troy Ramos

I was living in Lansing, a fine, gritty midsized city in the middle of Michigan, drifting from one week to the next. I was working tirelessly during the day to pay my rent, and feverishly creating art projects at night, desperately trying to construct an escape route from the monotonous, underpaid life of the everyday American worker in the hopes of simply being able to make it as an artist. Even if I was a poor artist, barely surviving, I would take that scenario every time.

I think every artist has to develop their own process. I’m not sure if it’s possible to create interesting works without a tailor made, fantastic process. Maybe somebody can create art without it, I don’t know. But I can’t. And it was around this time that I completely embraced the process that has worked for me ever since. It’s a pattern that fits me like a glove and, somehow, through some weird stroke of fortune, it produces the most interesting works I’ve ever done, as well.

I call this process Naturalism, mostly because it comes naturally to me. It basically means that, when I create something, I trust the artistic skills I’ve been developing for nearly 25 years and allow them to work without my analytical brain getting in the way. The goal is to avoid the ‘paralysis-by-analysis’ trap and just write.

But another strong aspect of my process is time: I think (for me) it’s important to create works in as short a time span as possible, so as to create something which encapsulates a specific point in space and time. For myself, if time is passing and it’s taking longer and longer to finish work, this work ends up becoming a representation of different mindsets and different perspectives. And I don’t want that. I want it to be from a particular point in my life.

And this is exactly the process I used to create this album, “Twelve Stars”.

Sometimes I hesitate to tell people how quickly I can write something because they may dismiss it as a work that hasn’t been thought through or has been rushed, etc. But that’s not the case for me. Works that I write quickly are my best works, in every regard. And so for this work, “Twelve Stars”, I wanted to write two piano works per day, for six days straight. I wanted to have this album done within a week. The mixing and editing process always takes a few weeks after that, but I wanted the composition of the content to be done in one week. And that’s exactly what happened here. And I honestly don’t think anybody would listen to this and tell me that it sounds like it was done that quickly. It’s always the opposite reaction that I get.

The way that I layer these works gives it so much depth, I think. I always start with one line, and then I add in another line, and then I maybe add another voice (in this case, a piano voice). And I do that until it’s finished.

I think if you listen to this album from start to finish, you will quickly see that it encourages a certain type of reflective mood. But as you listen on, or listen more intensely, if you wish, I think you also hear a lot of themes that pop up throughout the album. It’s a soft, thoughtful and thematic album, full of mellow-vibes and timelessness.

This is easily one of my favorite works I’ve ever created. I hope that you enjoy it and I hope that you will consider supporting me by purchasing the album via the link below. I used to put my works on iTunes and Amazon, but they take such a large cut that I try to avoid using them. Bandcamp is great because it allows me to set a minimum price and people can pay whatever they wish beyond that. Thank you for reading this and please feel free to send me any thoughts or questions you may have about the album. I’d love to hear from you.

Recently we compiled a bucket list of events that we think would be super awesome to put on and they’re also events that we think the community would really respond positively to. We are always open to suggestions, so if you have any, please let us have them! So here’s our current bucket list of future events that we want to bring into existence:

Sounds for Nine Spaces

This event will feature a full performance of Troy Ramos’s Untitled for Two Percussionists and Electronics (2014) in nine different places around a city over the course of three days.

ArtHouse Film Night at a local theatre

ArtHouse 43 and a local theatre will team up to provide a night or weekend of independent/vintage & foreign film! We want this to be a regular occurrence, happening every month. Most movie theaters in the area play the same repertoire of first-run movies. We believe that there are great movies always flying under the radar, including foreign and vintage films. We also believe that movies deserve to live on beyond one run, which is why we want to provide a platform, again, for movies passed.

Birth and Death in the Same Breath

This will be a piece of new music by Troy Ramos for Cello, Oboe and Electronics, circa 60 minutes in duration, and it will be experienced only one time in history. This piece will not be recorded, it will not be sold and the electronic files and sheet music will be destroyed following the one and only performance of the work at its premiere.

Festival of Three-Minute Plays

This mostly informal event invites anyone to write a play of no longer than three minutes in duration. The performances of these plays can be pre-rehearsed with actors, or (preferably) the writers can simply show up with a script and anyone at the event who’s interested can read a part on the spot (or after a few minutes of rehearsal). It's sort of like an impromptu table read! There may be live musicians on hand to improvise a musical score or play a prepared intro, if necessary.

Listening Parties

People have the ability to listen to anything they want at any time. But listening to a work with other people, even if it’s in a very informal setting, is a totally different experience. It’s a shared experience. These regular gatherings will simply be a group of people who attend an event at a specific time, in an interesting space to listen to several, specifically designated pieces of music or sound collections on speakers. The first several Listening Parties will feature works by Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, Morton Feldman, Jonny Greenwood and The Talking Heads.

Take Two

This will be an evening of performances by local performers who will reenact classic episodes of classic TV shows live on stage. We will take the full scripts from four half-hour sitcoms, or scenes from movies, and then hand them off to performers to put on an evening of reenacted pieces of television and cinema history, with different interpretations and results.

We lived up to the name “Art” “House” this weekend, having an art show at our house on the north side of downtown BC showing works by 5 local artists! Thanks to everyone who came out to show!

This show was curated by AH43’s own Troy Ramos. “It’s so inspiring to see the community support what we do. And in this case, it was hyper local with ppl in our neighborhood just walking into the house and making it a fantastic evening.” The artists who had work shown were: Angelica de Jesus, Justin Andert, Chris Ramos, Jaziel Pugh and Troy Ramos.

“Project 100” is the idea where you donate $25 to www.ArtHouse43.com and in return artist Troy Ramos, will write a composition/sound work for you! This work can be specifically for you or based on something of your choice... a photo, a poem, your name, a word, an image, whatever, anything! This is the ultimate collaboration with a max of 100 people who can participate. It'll become one, big sound project with up to 100 different elements! Just click Support and commission your ORIGINAL music composition for only $25. Then send Troy anything you want him to focus on, theme-wise, if any, and he’ll write the work.

“This is your chance to be a part of something unique that hasn't been created before. These works will only exist if you help bring them into existence,” says Troy Ramos.

”I love writing works for people. It’s such a great way to have a positive interaction. We’re all looking for connections, we’re all floating around looking for significance or something meaningful. This could easily be one of those moments.”

Want to hear an example? Here is one work that a friend of ours requested after telling us a story he thought of and left it to the composer to create something (or not) based off of that story. After listening to his story, Ramos came up with Birth of a Ghost Bike. This is the story behind Birth of a Ghost Bike:

“This story was described to me like this: somebody was enjoying themselves on an evening with friends and drinking, having a great time. After a while, they started riding their bike home after the party, when surprisingly, they are blindsidedly hit in the face with a lead pipe. There was really no further part of the story, but that was more than enough to get me started on this work.”

With that in mind, this is what Troy came up with. The beginning is obviously light and fun and playful, but then towards the end it gets a little bit grittier than he normally writes, almost like a sound dragon breathing fire on to the ears of the universe.

The works of course aren’t representative. They already have their own meaning and Ramos would never project anything, even as interesting as a story as this is, or a poem or a person might be, onto the work itself. But the inspiration for creating works can come from anywhere. That has no limits, in his opinion. But for the “Birth of a Ghost Bike”, the artist really enjoyed this story and writing a new work based off of it. Troy can’t wait to compose more of these so send them in!”

And there are still slots to participate in Project 100, if you're interested. Simply go to www.arthouse43.com, click on "Support" at the top of the page, donate $25 and tell him if you have a basis for a sound work (you don't have to have an idea, btw!) and he'll write you a work!

Recently I couldn’t help but think about the persons who may or may not come in contact with any work that I create. What are my goals, in terms of whom I’m connecting with? Am I trying to control the “target audienc” too much? If so, is that a good thing? If I wanted to change that, HOW would I go about doing that?

Enter my new sound project called "Music for Strangers". It's an experiment into interacting with random people and spaces through the composition of new musical works. It's also about the loss of control of what we create and freeing the works from the hands of the artist.

Composer Toru Takemitsu once said about his works, with regard to having possession of them: "Should I leave them unsigned?" In this work, #MusicForStrangers, I take that approach, but address our possible expectations with what happens to the works themselves after they've been created and attempt to become part of the universe.

Beginning Saturday, October 22,, 2016, I will compose many short, musical works for one calendar year and then post them in random public spaces or offer them to random strangers. The copies I send or leave will be the ONLY copies. In other words, the fate of these notated sound works lies entirely on the shoulders of the strangers who come in contact with them.

Each one will be signed, photoed and numbered for the project. Once written, what happens to these works will no longer be in the control of the artist. Whatever happens to these pieces, happens to them. If they live on, they live on. If they are to be discarded forever, that's up to the people who find them or the people who ignore them.

One year. Musical works posted/given away randomly, in as many cities as I frequent. #MusicForStrangers.

Artist Troy Ramos grew up in the small city if Battle Creek, where he watched the Cereal Titans of the world move from being the beloved stronghold of the people to becoming the untrusted source of economic hardships.

”BC is still overshadowed by the cereal companies. But for a long time it seemed like it pretty much ruled everything,” said artist Troy Ramos. “But then in the late 1990s Kellogg’s dropped a bombshell on the city and cut thousands of people out of a job by moving their cereal production to Mexico. That’s not something a small city recovers from quickly, if ever.”

Ramos said it felt like everyone had at least a portion of their family’s economic reality invested in the cereal company job market.

”My dad worked at Post and retired from there, too. It seemed like everyone had someone in their family who worked at Kellogg’s, Post or Ralston’s. It was a part of the city in a deep, historical and financial way.”

When Ramos started working on his video and sound installation for ArtWalk in downtown BC, he said he was inspired to create a work which was based on the distinct differences he saw between the city and its relationship with each of the two big cereal companies there: Kellogg’s and Post.

”In short, it seemed like one company abandoned the city’s workers and one company didn’t. That’s my understanding. And so I wanted to explore these experiences through sounds and images. What I did was I created video of several different abandoned Kellogg’s spots, an old plant parking lot, an old factory site, etc. And then I superimposed audio over that video which consisted of field recorded sounds of the still operational Post factory, just across the street basically, sounds which became sound art or musical works. So, Essentially, you’re experiencing two different histories through two different artistic mediums, simultaneously.”

At the opening night, Ramos said that he experienced something with visitors that he hadn’t really expected.

“It was a great turnout and lots of people came and experienced the work. There were, however, a handful of people who had strong emotional reactions to the work that I wasn’t expecting. In particular, there was one couple who had retired from Kellogg’s and worked at the main plant I had featured in my video. In one shot, I did a time-lapse video of the abandoned parking lot which showed a very unique bit of writing on the parking lot, writing which had “99 Dock” written in big letters. The couple told me that they had seen that (and other) marker(s) every day they worked at that site, for decades, They were very emotional about it. They watched the entire work several times in a row. The whole thing was pretty powerful to observe.”

This work is still available to watch on the artist’s Vimeo page, as well as on this blog post. Below is the artist statement which accompanied the work on opening night.

TROY RAMOSAmerican, b. 1975

Somewhere Between Hope and Fear (2015)Video and SoundRunning Time: 8’33

You know what the difference is between history and memory? History is knowing what happened in the past. Memory is asking yourself: what does that which happened in the past have to do with who I am today?-Avraham Infeld

There are memories for an individual, and ones that we share collectively. We can know the history of our community. But how do our memories of our local history affect who we are today? Do you think about these things or have you moved on? If we look back in time and try to take the best things that have happened, and also try to move past (i.e. forget about) the bad things that have happened, aren’t we risking absorbing both? Is it even possible to take one and not the other? And how do we begin to talk about these things? Through art? How do these memories relate to art? Maybe they shouldn't relate to it. Maybe they should. Are you reading this looking for answers? Are we asking too many questions? If not these questions, which ones?

Somewhere Between Hope and Fear (2015) puts two potentially collective and individual memories in front of us: video of the abandoned-looking site of the formerly bustling Kellogg’s plant; and also various sounds recorded from outside the nearby Post plant (sounds which were then turned into a musical work). And after being put together, this work at once then becomes a harmony of memories. And because it combines two identities, identities which have very different histories and a very different relationship with the community, this piece also becomes a harmony of identities.

This artwork is really only concerned with the aesthetic quality of the images and sounds and how they function together. Beyond that, as mentioned, this work also happens to be inspired by thinking about the memories we have of events in our past, collectively and individually, thinking about them through potentially recognizable and/or symbolic images and sounds which may or may not trigger those memories, and how remembering a point in the past affects our thinking today as we experience them in a present setting and in an artistic context.

When Troy Ramos went from Portland, Oregon back to his native Michigan in 2015, one of the things he said he quickly learned to appreciate about his Pacific Northwest city was the great conversations he was lucky enough to have with so many of his close friends so frequently.

”I think I took that for granted in Portland. I felt like the luckiest journalist or documentary filmmaker in the world, in that, the people I was having conversations with we’re so interesting. We’d reach these levels of conversation that seemed mind blowing, like we were figuring out the world, understanding the possibilities of the mind. Even if we were just high, shit-talking baristas or a couple of knuckleheads in a pub, it felt like we were having some sort of a revolution of the mind.”

But when Ramos moved back to Michigan, however, he hit the ground running with his art projects. He immediately started the arts organization ArtHouse 43, started pushing his own artwork everywhere and started reconnecting with the people and area he grew up in.

”As much as I love the West Coast, sometimes, at least in Portland, it’s easy to get lulled into complacency. The weather’s not too bad, everyone’s chill and is willing to have those intellectual conversations. We just kind of floated. So sometimes things don’t move there. Not sure why. At least for me that was the case. So when I came back to Michigan, I got injected with a little bit of that eastern time zone aggressiveness. Start movin on your business or slowly die workin in some lifeless factory or auto parts store. For me, that’s an obvious choice. No lube shop days, thanks: art was the only way.”

But even with his art projects building, there was still something Ramos felt like he was missing.

“It’s funny how different regions have different ways of talking. Portland has its own way of talking with itself. And that can be very different than the way we talk in Michigan and Detroit. I think both places are talking real shit, it’s just that they’re coming at it from different angles, it’s a slightly different mindset. And so the easiest way I could think of to kind of encapsulate all those perspectives and mindsets, to have conversations that touched a little bit on each place, was to start a podcast. I thought it would be a great way to continue having those great conversations I was talking about earlier, but also to incorporate those same thought-provoking, newer (for me) conversations with the people here in Michigan.”

And with that, ArtHouse Radio was born.

ArtHouse Radio is a weekly arts, comedy and culture podcast which features prominent artists, comedians, thinkers, filmmakers, friends and lovers (oh la la!). It’s of course hosted by composer and artist Troy Ramos and is available on iTunes and every major podcasting site.

”The show has kind of evolved since the beginning, experimenting and trying different things. Sometimes the conversations can drift off into interesting areas, which I love. That’s life. And on some episodes I try to stick with a particular theme. Everything starts in the arts, but, like real conversations, things can go anywhere. And I encourage that openness. Strongly. “

Make sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes, download episodes and write a review! Sharing this podcast is also highly encouraged! https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/arthouse-radio/id1035389095?mt=2

Sonic Sketches is an hour-long sound art piece for piano and electronics which was released on iTunes and Amazon on May 11, 2015. This work experiments with big, sonic spaces and welcomes a thoughtful, reflective atmosphere. It is an exploration into themes which unravel into spaces that hint at structure but remain in a state of free movement.

”With each work I create I’m getting some stronger sense of clarity, both for the actual works themselves and the process by which I construct them,” said Ramos. “I’m really proud of this album and I really hope it gets supported. It’s true I’d create art no matter what, I really don’t want to have to go down that road. If we want to support art, we have to support the artists; particularly those artists who are perhaps winding their way through the woods, and especially those artists who are sensing some sort of daylight.”

This work was unveiled at the Between the Lines art show in Michigan and is available on iTunes, Amazon and Bandcamp!

In the winter of 2015, artists Chris Ramos in Troy Ramos begins sketching ideas not only for their first art show together, “Between the Lines”, but also inituated what would become the arts organization started by Troy Ramos: ArtHouse 43 43, LLC.

This exhibit featured charcoal sketches, paintings and photography by Chris Ramos. It also marked the premiere of Troy Ramos’s brand new sound installation “Sonic Sketches”, which is available on iTunes, Amazon and at www.troyramos.bandcamp.com.

The show was a huge success, pulling in a few hundred people and garnered a fantastic amount of media attention.